April 09, 2012

Yesterday was the 28th Annual Brooklyn Duathlon. Actually, it's the first time that the NY Tri Club actually called it a duathlon instead of a biathlon, and it's only the seventh time on this course, but I digress. Over the years this race has been our traditional season opener, and it has treated us well. Back in the day, it was Chris Bergland's first multisport victory, and a few years ago our ladies (Amy May, Jeannine Bardo, Yvonne Kingon) swept the podium with a 1,2,3 finish. Yesterday was no exception.

It was Nicole Sin Quee's first multisport race in 18 months. She had only been outdoors on a bike three times since then, and since she's been busy taking care of our 5-month old son, her training has been quite different than in the past. It has consisted mostly of Computrainer rides and running to and from work with a bag on her back 3-4x/week, coupled with a weekly team workout and long run. Nicole started strong, finishing the first 2.06 mile run in 12:57 (6:17/mile). That brought her into transition a few seconds behind the leader. She quickly gained the lead on the bike, putting up the fastest split of the day. She finished with a 12:46 second run (also fastest split for the day), and a convincing 2.5 minute gap over the second place finisher. In addition, Nicole was well over a minute faster than her last time at the Brooklyn Bi/Du, and posted the third fastest time in the seven year history of the course. Not a bad comeback.

In the men's race, we had Fabian Gallardo and Jon Miles, both in training for Ironman but looking for a fun, early season event. Fabian finished 7th overall and won his age group, while Miles bested his previous PR by two minutes, finishing 10th overall and also winning his age group.

Congratulations to the lovely Nicole Sin Quee for her strong showing at the Race at Roosevelt Island (10k) today. Nicole’s comeback is progressing well, as she was the first Masters finisher, and 6th overall woman, finishing in a time of 41:51 (6:45/mile). Also on hand was the indefatigable Chris Solarz, who finished a close 2nd overall in 34:40 (5:35/mile).

March 28, 2012

Every year, one of my favorite training programs is our JackRabbit track program in Red Hook. It's a great way to improve your speed and form, and I get to harrass you along the way.

We run on Tuesdays at 6:45p from April 24-June 26, then take a break and start another ten week session. If you're training for triathlons, or anything from 5k to marathon distance running races, we can help. Registration is through the JackRabbit website.

Anna Bretan is pictured here with her 6-week old daughter. Minutes after this photo was taken, she passed the baby off (presumably to her husband and her two other children) and proceeded to win the Oakland Marathon in a rather swift time of 2:57:33.

I'm married to a woman who was back at her pre-pregnancy weight within 3-4 weeks after having the baby, so I'm not easy to impress. But Ms. Bretan has managed to wow me.

And the next time I think Simon is keeping me too busy to train, I'll remember this.

March 26, 2012

Though I could wax nostalgic about the time the March Madness race was held in April (true story) or the fact that NYTC insisted on calling it a Biathlon until this year, let's live in the present and congratulate yesterday's City Coach representatives at the March Madness Du.

Fabian Gallardo - 22nd overall (in a field of 373)

Eli Yedid - followed up last week's PR at the NYC Half with an 8-minute improvement over last year's race.

March 24, 2012

Congratulations to Lauri Young, who finished 2nd out of 67 women in the 50-54 AG at today's 13.1 New York race. (Sorry, I simply refuse to refer to it by the official name, 13.1 Marathon.) Lauri finished in 1:53:34, and narrowly missed the AG victory.